VP of Product, Lending

San Francisco, CA (Remote)

Our mission is to make higher education accessible and affordable for everyone. We empower students with financial support and supercharge their ability to pay down their debt, so they can get on the right financial track, fast.

We build tools that help people feel in control of their financial future, including:

  • Private student loans - low rates, people-first service, and flexible payments.
  • Student loan refinancing - break free from high-interest rates or monthly payments.
  • Scholarships - access to thousands of scholarships to help students pay less.

Earnies are committed to helping students live their best lives, free from the stress of student debt. If you’re as passionate as we are about our mission, read more below, and let’s build something great together! 

The VP of Product, Lending position will report to the Chief Product Officer. 

As a VP of Product, Lending, you will:

  • Play a key role in advancing our mission. At Earnest, we have invested in empowering students with financial support and supercharging their ability to pay down their debt, so they can get on the right financial track, fast. We already help our customers pay down their student debt with our simple and flexible student loan refi product, and we are looking to take the next step in our mission by building out new product lines to help customers make a plan and tackle their debt in the most effective way possible.
  • Lead our current at-scale, revenue-driving student lending products, as well as bringing new lending and financial products to market that support students and young professionals as they work to get out of debt and move into building wealth and financial security.
  • Develop and expand our Lending Platform, ensuring that customers across our various products receive the best, most efficient experience possible, as well as enable product and business teams to build new experiences rapidly.
  • Partner closely with other teams including Credit, Data Science, Capital Markets, Customer Happiness & Marketing to bring new products to market that are cohesive across the financial and digital product experiences as well as the human interactions along the way.

Your Impact:

  • The result of your work will be to drive rapid growth at Earnest - both in the number of customers that we’re serving, and in the breadth of solutions that we’re bringing to market. You will help us transform our product offering from a student lending focus to a broader focus on helping our customers pay down debt, and find ways to multiply our business by helping any customer who could benefit from Earnest products to find us and get started.

About You: 

  • 12+ years of experience at leading technology companies in Product Management or other roles bridging business and technology.
  • 7+ years building, developing and leading teams.
  • Experience managing lending and financial products, from the launch to scale to maturity phase.
  • Experience developing product and business strategy, and then executing that strategy in a way that drives growth and increased market share.
  • Experience bringing new products to market, including customer discovery, MVP definition, feature testing and taking this new product to market.
  • Experience setting success metrics, and using analytical tools to dig into product data and customer feedback to see what to build next.
  • Experience leading teams of product managers, including Directors and Group Product Managers, and shaping those teams to be high performing and highly engaged.
  • Experience building consumer products.
  • Willingness to travel to the Oakland office monthly to collaborate with other Earnies.

Even Better:

  • Experience in the Fintech lending space, or working with products that have significant financial risk.
  • Experience building products with predictive models driving parts of the customer experience - this could include personalization, algorithmic recommendations, or use of emerging AI tech to solve a customer problem.
  • Experience setting an overall roadmap for a company or division of a company.

Where:

  • This role will be based in the San Francisco Bay Area.
  • While you’ll enjoy the flexibility of remote work, we also love to see our Earnies face-to-face! We ask you to join us at our Oakland office for 3 consecutive days a month for team collaboration and some fun. It's a chance to connect, share ideas, and maybe even grab some coffee together!

#LI-GA1

A little about our pay philosophy: We take pride in compensating our employees fairly and equitably. We are showcasing a range of your potential base salary. The successful candidate’s starting pay will also be determined based on job-related qualifications, internal compensation, and budget. This range may be modified in the future.

Pay Range

$272,000 - $325,000 USD

Earnest believes in enabling our employees to live their best lives. We offer a variety of perks and competitive benefits, including: 

  • Health, Dental, & Vision benefits plus savings plans
  • Mac computers + work-from-home stipend to set up your home office
  • Monthly internet and phone reimbursement
  • Employee Stock Purchase Plan
  • Restricted Stock Units (RSUs)
  • 401(k) plan to help you save for retirement plus a company match
  • Robust tuition reimbursement program
  • $1,000 travel perk on each Earnie-versary to anywhere in the world 
  • Competitive days of annual PTO
  • Competitive parental leave

What makes an “Earnie” culture: 

  • Drivers – Drivers are satisfied by making things happen, not coming along for the ride. They feel a strong sense of ownership for their projects and teams and demand high standards from themselves and others.
  • Humility – Humble team players check their egos and consider the team’s needs above their own. They are self-aware of their strengths and opportunities for improvement.
  • Growth Mindset – People with a growth mindset approach challenges and failures as learning opportunities. They seek feedback to improve, give feedback to others, and genuinely want to perform well. 

At Earnest, we are committed to building an environment where our employees feel included, valued, and heard. Our belief is that a strong commitment to diversity, inclusion, equity, and belonging enables us to move forward with our mission. We are dedicated to adding new perspectives to the team and encourage anyone to apply if your experience is close to what we are looking for.  

Earnest provides equal employment opportunities (EEO) to all employees and applicants for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, sexual orientation, gender identity, veteran status, disability or genetics. Qualified applicants with criminal histories will be considered for the position in a manner consistent with the Fair Chance Ordinance.

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